Happy 2022

Once again, the year got away from me, and we are now in another year of this crazy pandemic. This weird semi-normal world where things aren't quite back to normal, yet we are still masking and concerned about the new variants cropping up everyday. I personally have had COVID only once, right after Christmas, when my brothers and sister-in-law were alerted to an exposure after a family gathering. I mostly felt like I had a mild flu. Knock-on-wood, I've been thankfully very healthy otherwise, but busy with the years events; moving out of and selling my childhood home, moving as much as humanly possible to my new place in Boston, purchasing my first sewing machine, flying to Raleigh for a family wedding, losing my job on January 28th, among other adventures that have been slightly stunted by the current atmosphere of the planet.

Despite everything, I still managed to schedule some light in the distance with a rogue Disney World trip at the end of February for the Princess Half Marathon. Now those of you who know me personally, know that I am not an athlete. I'd rather spend my time exercising in a yoga, ballet, or pilates class. The one time I played a sport in high school was my senior year and I signed up for track. I initially signed up for shot-put, but after a week of feeble attempts, the coach moved me to sprints. I still fared fairly poorly at this; one of the meets I placed 6th to last in the whole division. Nonetheless, when I saw the 5K theme for the weekend was Cinderella, I found it my impetus to sign up and run. The RunDisney signups pretty quickly, but somewhere along the way, I also found that Give Kids the World also has race registrations and participants can run and raise money for the Village. At the time of this post, I have raised over $750 and am hoping to raise $1000 by the time I hit the pavement on February 25th.

West Coast Bound!

Big news - I'm attending Costume College for the first time this July! I'm super excited to learn as well as play dress-up with hundreds of other ladies. There are at least 5 different events to dress-up for on top of tons and tons of classes (both limited and unlimited), vendors, and other costuming related events. As of this posting, I have received my picks for limited classes (basic beading and corset flossing) and am in the throes of figuring out my schedule of unlimited classes and planning costumes to wear for the various events. These are the Thursday evening Welcome Party, the Friday Social, Saturday night Gala (complete with red carpet), Sunday "mourning" breakfast (which I may or may not attend depending on how exhausted I am from Saturday night), and the Sunday afternoon Tea (which I was not able to secure a ticket for). So that brings the grand total to a minimum of three garments I'll need to make/pack. More to come on these, as a single post won't do them justice.

Bubblegum Goodness

Like I forecasted, I am several months past my anticipated post date, but I am back (temporarily)! Back in October, I finished my bubblegum pink 1840s ballgown and I proudly wore it to the Victoria and Albert dance weekend, but in typical fashion, I only managed to get one decent photo of it, which i post thus:

The gown features about six or seven yards of bubblegum pink silk taffeta which I scoured the NY Garment district for, initially searching for lilac and ending up on pink because the lilac would take 10+ weeks to order. Who knew that lilac would be impossible to find? In summary, I am quite proud of my little gown and its ability to function for 2 eras (yes, 2 - with hoops it can also pass for 1850s). It is missing sleeve piping which I hope to remedy in the future, and lacks a Bertha (due to my lack of time finishing it for its first wearing) but it is what it is. Its next debut will be at Costume College in California in July!

Seasons of Cities and Mountains

It is an absolutely gorgeous day outside today and there is no Mountain Day. Very disappointing (for all you non Smithie readers, Mountain Day is an unannounced holiday in which classes are cancelled on a nice fall day. I think originally Smithies did climb mountains, but now we go apple picking, sunbathe or just catch up on homework). Hopefully it will not be next week, as fall break starts on the 8th.

Long day.....

I just got back from an excursion to UMass to get art supplies for my costume design class. I needed watercolor brushes and paper, a palette, a pencil sharpener, and a portfolio to keep my works of art in and some of my housemates and I have discovered it is much cheaper to purchase art supplies at the UMass campus store than at the (really awesome) art store in town. So a friend and I went to the art store and purchased all that I needed (except the watercolor paper which I thought there might be a better selection in town). After, we walked back to the bus stop and found a massive crowd of people waiting to get on. We figured we wouldn't be able to get on so we walked the the other stop. Big mistake. We ended up waiting nearly an hour and a half before getting on a bus because every passing bus was filled to the gills! So I'm finally home and completely exhausted, but I do have my awesome art supplies :).

Urinetown rehearsals are good - I had one on Thursday night and we read through the script. I noticed all the really funny parts in the show this time and I guess I better understand all the jokes and such this time around. The dynamic is also very different because the whole cast is women with a few playing guys (myself included!), but I like it a lot. We have a dance "audition" tomorrow so that the choreographer can get a sense of how well we dance and what she can do with us.

The girl across the hall from me is really into anime and watches the Hayao Miyazaki movies which is nice because I have had few people in the past who enjoyed these movies. She also loves cute kitties from icanhascheezburger.com and has converted me. They are absolutely amazingly cute!

Trip to Lowell - a fashion (and textile) history

Because of vacation, I went out to the American Textile History Museum to get some ideas and do some research. It was so cool! The museum actually talked about the different types of materials used in clothing and how they have progressed over time. It started with flax and linen, moved through cotton and the labor required (think mills and such), then ended in modern day with polyester and Eco-fabrics (such as polar fleece made of recycled bottles). The museum was well laid out and very informative - plus it had dresses from all the major eras! Here are my findings below: